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Monday, December 17, 2018

Favorite Books (I Read) of 2018

As usual, this list is taken from the books I’ve
read during 2018. Who cares what year a good book was published, really? I
believe in buying lots of books and then letting them rise to the surface at
the right time. I also believe in keeping this list to 10ish, so I’ve forced
myself to be ruthless. What are the books I urged onto other people? The books
that haunt me months later?

One difficulty with my list is that I try to keep
it free of books written by my friends, which feels more honest to me, but I am
lucky to have SO MANY accomplished and prolific writer friends! Also, in this
age of social media, is someone I know from Facebook a “friend” or a friend?
What if I met someone once at an event…are they my friend/“friend” and
therefore excluded from my list? My imperfect solution is to keep a separate,
unranked list of books I loved that I read this year that were written by my
friends (below) and hope no one hates me. Also, I did let one book blur the “friend”/friend line to
sneak onto the first list.

Presented in random order:

Another
Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson: I read this in a single morning and ached all
day for these young girls.

The Power,
Naomi Alderman: Smart, dark, well-constructed…and a book you’ll want to discuss
immediately with someone as you turn that last page. If you have a book club,
this one should be required reading!

An American
Marriage, Tayari Jones: This author is a dazzling reader/presenter of her
work, so catch her if you can; this book is utterly absorbing, about a newlywed
African-American man accused of a crime he didn’t commit and what happens to a fledgling marriage.

You Think
It, I’ll Say It, Curtis Sittenfeld: What delightfully dark and modern humor.
Each story felt complete yet I longed to read more, more, more. Spin each of these stories off into a novel, please.

Against
Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, Steve Almond: This non-fiction book
made me queasy because the author totally—with verve and vigor—nailed each and
every awful thing about the football industrial complex…yet I still find myself
shouting, “Get him!” at my TV screen on Sunday afternoons this autumn. Thought-provoking in the best way.

Eleven Kind
of Loneliness, Richard Yates: A reread of this classic story collection. I
wrote in my book journal, “Like stepping into an Edward Hopper painting,” and
I’m pretty sure saying more than that won't create a clearer
picture of these bleak and human stories.

The Great
Believers, Rebecca Makkai: About the AIDS crisis in Chicago in the 80s and
a totally immersive book that will break your heart even as you can’t stop turning
the pages. There’s a modern storyline interwoven, ensuring that we feel the
ripple effects of this tragic epidemic.

Sharp
Objects, Gillian Flynn: Creepy, complicated characters doing creepy,
complicated things. I found the TV show to be addictive, but the book topped
the show. Really, I suggest checking out both.

Calypso,
David Sedaris: Deep and hard exploration of family and loss. Yes, he’s funny,
of course. But he’s so much more, and that final revelation will mule-kick you
in the gut. I’d read many of these pieces previously in The New Yorker but
encountering them arranged with an arc in mind gave new resonance. Also, I didn't think much about the title until I did, doing some minor research, and there's more and deep resonance with this choice.

Educated,
Tara Westover: A memoir about a girl who grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon
family in Idaho, so beyond convention that the youngest kids never went to
school. Yet the author manages to extricate herself from this insular world.
Harrowing and relentless and brutal in its honesty: yet the author never
neglects to treat even the villainous people with compassion and humanity.
Extraordinary. If I had to select one book that was my favorite of the year, right
this minute it would be this one. (Runners-up are The Great Believers and An
American Marriage.)

The Perfect
Nanny, Leila Slimani: I loved how the author of this novel captured the
nuances of the uncomfortable relationship the domestic “employer” has with the
domestic “employed,” the trickiness of outsourcing family labor traditionally
done by women. There’s a dramatic and horrible opening…yet in my mind that
almost isn’t even the point of this chilly and chilling book.

Descent,
Tim Johnston: Depending on the kind of reader you are, you’ll pick this up for
the literary cred and stay for the suspense, or vice versa. In any event, this
book delivers both, multiplied by 1000, as a family deals with the abrupt disappearance of
teenage daughter/sister. I defy you to close this book once you reach the last
third! (This is the “friend” book that I fudged into this section because, well,
just because I’m in charge here! And because I was reading it on an airplane and was GRATEFUL the plane had to circle for 20 extra minutes so I could finish reading it!)

BOOKS I
READ BY MY FRIENDS AND “FRIENDS”

How to Sit,
Tyrese Coleman: A hybrid mix of fact and fiction, these stories and essays left
me breathless, and not just because the author was in one of my fiction
workshops at Johns Hopkins, but because the writing is that assured. (A debut!)

Monsoon Mansion,
Cinelle Barnes: A ravishingly assured debut memoir by one of our Converse MFA grads who
grew up in dire circumstances in the Philippines and who found a way to survive
to tell the tale, elegantly. (A debut!)

Sad Math,
poems, Sarah Freligh: The type of poetry I love most of all, accessible yet
resounding with heartfelt depth, like the continued quiver of a tuning fork.

The Second O
of Sorrow, poems, Sean Thomas Dougherty: The Rust Belt gets so much
clear-eyed, deeply honest love here that it’s impossible not to see beauty, not
to feel an endless ache.

The Promise
of Failure, John McNally: A smart and honest memoir/craft book about the
author’s (and our) ongoing struggles with the writing life and how failure fits
into that life (and any life, really).

The
Incurables, Mark Brazaitis: Tough linked short stories about tough people
trained to be stoic; the title story is especially incredible.

Crumb-Sized,
poems, Marlena Chertock: Don’t let the science motif intimidate you; these
poems are personal, revealing, and stunning. And a gold star for the lovely
book design!

This Could
Hurt, Jillian Medoff: I think the workplace is under-represented in
literary fiction, especially when I see the riches available when one of the primary characters is a sharp-eyed
female corporate boss lost in New York City’s rat race.

The
Accidental Bride, Janice Harayda: When you want a totally light-hearted, amusing
& charming but also SMART book about wedding woes!

First Comes
Love, Marian Winik: A harrowing & deeply honest memoir about being in
love with the wrong person who is also exactly the right person.

Carry Her
Home, Caroline Bock: Linked stories about grief and family and a New York
of the past. (I first met the author in one of my classes at Politics &
Prose!)

The Balcony,
Jane Delury: France, the French, and lots of food! For some that might be all
you need to hear! For the rest, this novel-in-stories is an elegant evocation
of a house in France and its complex history. (A debut!)